Local Man Kills Himself

A 57-year-old Westside man apparently took his own life earlier this week outside the landmark Sony Pictures Plaza building in Downtown Culver City, according to police officials.

Officers were called to the scene on the side of the building that runs along Culver Boulevard shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday, Culver Police Lt. Ron Iizuka said. There they found the body of the man, hidden from the view of passing motorists by a tall hedge.

Iizuka would not immediately identify the man, but said he lived near the border shared by Culver City and Los Angeles. He was dead from a single gunshot wound and had left a suicide note, the lieutenant added.

“We are treating this as a suicide, not as a homicide,” Iizuka said. The scene was processed and the body transported to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office.

It was the third grisly suicide that Culver City has seen in recent months.

On July 5, Charles Edward Drake III of San Pedro died after setting himself on fire outside a self-help facility in the 6600 block of Green Valley Circle. And in March, the body of Valerie Nash was found in her home in the 3600 block of Keystone Avenue.

The 47-year-old woman wrote a suicide note before putting a buzzing chainsaw to her neck, authorities said.